The first battery of US Patriot missile will be deployed in Poland either this year or next, Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said, Friday. 

“We are negotiating with the Americans and we are getting closer to a conclusion. I hope we will make the final decision in the autumn. There are still some controversial points, but the number of those is decreasing,” Bogdan Klich told Polish Radio. 

It emerged earlier this year that the warheads on the Patriots would be of ‘training quality’ only and not battle-ready, something which prompted many to ask what the point of the battery would be.

“There is no forgone conclusion whether the missiles will be armed or not,” Klich declared, “It is hard to define the concept of unarmed Patriot missiles in technical army terms,” admitted Minister Klich.

A Polish-US agreement on the anti-missile interceptor’s deployment in Poland, together with Patriot missiles, was signed with the previous Bush administration last year. The document, however, has not been ratified by the Polish parliament nor agreed by President Obama.

On Thursday, Boeing further complicated the issue by presenting a proposal to build a mobile interceptor missile unit, which could be flown to NATO countries are required, as an alternative to the fixed interceptor missile system which has been earmarked to be installed in Poland.

The measure put forward by Boeing – which has already built anti-missile systems for the US – is hoped to blunt Russian opposition against both Polish and Czech involvement in the missile-defense project in Europe. 

“I think this issue will be settled within the next few  weeks, definitely not later than this autumn.” Said Bogdan Klich. (jg/pg)